SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -
UC Santa Barbara handed 75th-ranked Dartmouth a 5-1 drubbing on Saturday afternoon at the Tennis Club of Santa Barbara. The Big Green was the fourth nationally-ranked team that the Gauchos have defeated this season.

While the Gauchos have beaten four nationally-ranked opponents this season, they remain unranked.

Nick Brotman posted a solid win at the No. 1 slot with some huge serving. Brotman avenged a defeat from last year with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Dave Waslen. In addition, freshman Bijan Hejazi swept his opponent at No. 2, Jeff Schechtman, 6-2, 6-3 and sophomore Anders Dalskov topped Raj Shrestha, 6-4, 6-2, to give UCSB a sweep of the one through three matches.

UCSB also swept the doubles matches to earn the doubles point.

The Gauchos will now head into Spring Break, which will be both busy and important as they play four matches in five days, including an April Fools Day contest with conference rival Pacific. At this stage, it appears that UOP is the biggest challenge to UCSB in its quest for the Big West Conference title and a trip to the NCAA Championships.

While the Gauchos will host Pacific on April 1, no fooling, they have two key matches prior to that. UCSB will play Santa Clara on Wed., March 29 and nationally-ranked Harvard (No. 73) on Thur., March 30. Both matches will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Recreation Center Courts. The match against league-rival UOP will start at 1:00 p.m. on Sat., April 1, also at the Recreation Center Courts.

For the UOP match, free Hamburger Habit burgers will be provided for all in attendance. Let me tell you, if you haven't had a Hamburger Habit hamburger, you have NOT had a hamburger! Really.